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Congrats. I keep hearing it is pretty much a waste of time for a 3L to find a decent private practice job at this point until passing the bar. What do you think? Seems like most all the big firms are set and the mids are waiting til spring or summer to determine needs.

2LsAPlenty wrote:Congrats. I keep hearing it is pretty much a waste of time for a 3L to find a decent private practice job at this point until passing the bar. What do you think? Seems like most all the big firms are set and the mids are waiting til spring or summer to determine needs.

Yea, I wonder if this is true too. Has anyone had any luck with law firms recently?

Anonymous User wrote:During 2L OCI I was top 15% at a T1 school with LR. (now top 10%) During 2L I won several national moot court competitions and got on LR e board. After striking out at 2L OCI and subsequent mass mail I ended up working shitlaw during the summer.

I've been massmailing like crazy for for the past three months. 150 mass mails resulted in 4 interviews. Waiting to hear back on one of them, dinged at the others.

At this point, I'm just going to ride out the rest of this loan money. I'm going to party balls. If I still don't have anything lined up when I graduate I'm going to move away from this crappy city and move to Colorado. I swear to god, I'll ski bum the rest of my life and never pay a penny back. On the bright side, even though I'll be poor I'll probably enjoy my life more than many of my friends who landed biglaw.

The unfortunate part is realizing that I have failed. I already knew this after 2L summer, but now it's getting real. So much for a family, decent car, and home. Cheers bros, and good luck to all of you.

Back again. Scored a job with a small office of a midsize regional firm. Looks like I get (have?) to foregoe the ski bum life for a while. All I can say is keep up the mass mail and tailor cover letters as much as possible, especially when contacting small firms. And then most importantly, follow up. The only reason I got the job is because I followed up with another email a week after first mailing them, and then a week later called. That's what got me the interview, and ultimately the job. Good luck!

Anonymous User wrote:During 2L OCI I was top 15% at a T1 school with LR. (now top 10%) During 2L I won several national moot court competitions and got on LR e board. After striking out at 2L OCI and subsequent mass mail I ended up working shitlaw during the summer.

I've been massmailing like crazy for for the past three months. 150 mass mails resulted in 4 interviews. Waiting to hear back on one of them, dinged at the others.

At this point, I'm just going to ride out the rest of this loan money. I'm going to party balls. If I still don't have anything lined up when I graduate I'm going to move away from this crappy city and move to Colorado. I swear to god, I'll ski bum the rest of my life and never pay a penny back. On the bright side, even though I'll be poor I'll probably enjoy my life more than many of my friends who landed biglaw.

The unfortunate part is realizing that I have failed. I already knew this after 2L summer, but now it's getting real. So much for a family, decent car, and home. Cheers bros, and good luck to all of you.

Back again. Scored a job with a small office of a midsize regional firm. Looks like I get (have?) to foregoe the ski bum life for a while. All I can say is keep up the mass mail and tailor cover letters as much as possible, especially when contacting small firms. And then most importantly, follow up. The only reason I got the job is because I followed up with another email a week after first mailing them, and then a week later called. That's what got me the interview, and ultimately the job. Good luck!

Anonymous User wrote:During 2L OCI I was top 15% at a T1 school with LR. (now top 10%) During 2L I won several national moot court competitions and got on LR e board. After striking out at 2L OCI and subsequent mass mail I ended up working shitlaw during the summer.

I've been massmailing like crazy for for the past three months. 150 mass mails resulted in 4 interviews. Waiting to hear back on one of them, dinged at the others.

At this point, I'm just going to ride out the rest of this loan money. I'm going to party balls. If I still don't have anything lined up when I graduate I'm going to move away from this crappy city and move to Colorado. I swear to god, I'll ski bum the rest of my life and never pay a penny back. On the bright side, even though I'll be poor I'll probably enjoy my life more than many of my friends who landed biglaw.

The unfortunate part is realizing that I have failed. I already knew this after 2L summer, but now it's getting real. So much for a family, decent car, and home. Cheers bros, and good luck to all of you.

Back again. Scored a job with a small office of a midsize regional firm. Looks like I get (have?) to foregoe the ski bum life for a while. All I can say is keep up the mass mail and tailor cover letters as much as possible, especially when contacting small firms. And then most importantly, follow up. The only reason I got the job is because I followed up with another email a week after first mailing them, and then a week later called. That's what got me the interview, and ultimately the job. Good luck!

While there are conflicting views and occasional luck, for the most part, big law is done and mids and smaller firms mostly will not make any further hiring decisions until February or so. The one exception I have seen is some smaller and mid sized firms are hiring for winter break contract work and school year project work. The assumption is that they have some need and if you do a good job and a position opens up, you should be first in line.

I'm buying into this whole firms-not-going-to-pay-attention until the spring thing so that I can stop thinking about it so damn much and work on improving my grades. Hate to be doing that as a 3L.

I'm working a lot at the firm that no-offered me this summer and hoping they wind up having a spot for me, but I glanced at our timekeeping software last week and none of the associates are on pace to be over the hours goal for the year. Bad news bears.

TTH wrote:I'm buying into this whole firms-not-going-to-pay-attention until the spring thing so that I can stop thinking about it so damn much and work on improving my grades. Hate to be doing that as a 3L.

I'm working a lot at the firm that no-offered me this summer and hoping they wind up having a spot for me, but I glanced at our timekeeping software last week and none of the associates are on pace to be over the hours goal for the year. Bad news bears.

Sigh. I mean, I guess I could always go back to being a union rep.

Sigh.

I wish I had done something before law school so I could have something to fall back on.

These firms can suck my nuts. I had a V50 that gave me a callback 2L year call me up (which I thought was me getting an offer from another big law firm I had a CB with) and say we are going to be interviewing people and your resume was forwarded by X partner. My resume had my gpa on it and the partner said that my grades were much better in the email to HR (bottom 15% 1L, got it up to about median 2L). Send my transcript, and exactly two days later I have a rejection in the mail...i didn't even fucking apply in the first place.

Also, does anyone else think networking for legal employment is an elaborate flame?

For two years, I went out of my way to cultivate relationships around town, and it's resulted in precisely dick. Mileage may vary for family connections and what not, but as someone who didn't have lawyers in the family or grow up around lawyers, my vaunted network hasn't accomplished shit.

You cannot force networking. Networking played a huge part in getting my 3L offer from a firm I did not summer at. My guess is you still need a little tweeking. And networking does not always present you with an opportunity right now. You should never expect immediate results from networking. You will reap the benefits of it as you move along in your practice (i.e., lateralling, referals, etc.)

There is certainly a luck component. My friend kept in touch with a hiring partner who ended up sending her an overflow assignment or two and it end up not only in a 2L SA but a permanent offer after the summer. Have another friend on journal that just got a part time gig with firm with at least some prospect of an offer if the work is good. Is that luck or not.